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  Method of controlling the program selection at the receiver of a broadcast mediumUSPTO Application #: 20060059516Title: Method of controlling the program selection at the receiver of a broadcast medium Abstract: An interactive television application with watch lists is provided. The user may add programs such as television programs, Internet web pages, e-commerce applications, e-mail applications, and music channels, to a watch list. The user may also select a program from the watch list to watch it or to perform some other function related to that program. The interactive television application may display, under user control, watch lists that are overlaid over television programming, scaled so as not to obscure television programming, or on touch-screen remote controls. Programs may be added by the user to the watch lists at any time, or may bc automatically added or removed by the interactive television application based on user preference profiles and reminder lists. (end of abstract) Agent: Philips Intellectual Property & Standards - Briarcliff Manor, NY, US Inventors: Adras Montvay, Martin Elixmann USPTO Applicaton #: 20060059516 - Class: 725046000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Interactive Video Distribution Systems, Operator Interface, To Facilitate Tuning Or Selection Of Video Signal, Electronic Program Guide, Content Arrangement, Based On Personal Preference, Profile, Or Viewing History (e.g., To Produce Redacted Listing) The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060059516. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
[0001] The invention relates to a method of controlling the program selection at the receiver of a broadcast medium, in which a list of preferred programs is managed in accordance with predetermined criteria. Furthermore, the invention relates to a receiver for a broadcast medium, comprising a processing unit for managing a list of preferred programs in accordance with predetermined criteria. [0002] Broadcast media such as, for example, television or radio are characterized in that they transmit broadcasts in accordance with a fixed time plan and that a quasi-arbitrary number of users, not fixed in advance, can receive these broadcasts. Typically, broadcasts are transmitted in parallel on different channels of a broadcast medium, which channel broadcasts will hereinafter be referred to as "programs". [0003] To manage the programs that can be received by a receiving apparatus such as, for example, a television or a radio and to enable the user to select the program in a convenient manner, different methods have been developed. For example, the management of the (complete) program survey in a numerically sorted channel list has been lnown for a long time. However, such lists are static and their sequence can usually only be changed by explicit user actions. This also applies to methods which have been further developed such as, for example, for satellite receivers in which the programs of a list can be grouped in accordance with program providers or in which the list can be completely edited on a computer. [0004] Furthermore, radio receivers such as particularly car radios with an RDS system use automatic search tuning in which a list of, for example, six stations that have instantaneously the best reception are determined and assigned to station keys. Moreover, in RDS, a program selection in accordance with musical taste is also possible. To this end, the radio transmitter supplies information on whether preferably pop, classic music, country, etc. is played on the corresponding channel. However, such a classification does not take the instantaneously transmitted contents into account and is therefore unsuitable, particularly for "versatile" radio transmitters. [0005] A method in which a list of preferred programs is automatically managed is known from WO 01/91458 A2. The list particularly comprises the entry of programs in the list or their removal from the list in accordance with predetermined user preferences. The latter may also be determined automatically by taking the times the user spends on a given program into account. In any case, however, the entry of a program in the list pre-supposes that the user has previously identified corresponding preferences explicitly or by way of his behavior. [0006] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of controlling the program selection at the receiver of a broadcast medium, as well as an appropriately adapted receiver providing the possibility of a flexible program selection which is comfortable for the user and takes all potentially interesting programs into account. [0007] This object is achieved by a method as defined in claim 1, a method as defined in claim 6, and by a receiver as defined in claim 9. Advantageous embodiments are defined in the dependent claims. [0008] According to the invention, the method of controlling the program selection at the receiver of at least one broadcast medium is based on a list of preferred programs managed in accordance with predetermined criteria. To manage the list, entries of new programs are introduced and/or programs are removed. The method is characterized in that at least a part of said predetermined criteria is based on information about the program evaluation by other users of the broadcast medium. [0009] While known methods of managing a list of preferred programs depend on explicit and/or implicit inputs by the relevant user as far as subjective selection criteria are concerned, the above-mentioned method provides a flexible and automatic management of a program list in accordance with subjective criteria without requiring input by the relevant user. To achieve this, the program evaluation is utilized which is gained (explicitly or implicitly) from other users of the broadcast medium. By definition, "other users" are those that do not use the receiver on which the method is performed. The method utilizes the characteristic feature of a broadcast medium in that the programs that are transmitted by this medium are simultaneously consumed by a more or less large number of users. [0010] The program evaluation by other users, on which the method is based, may be gained, for example, from a (remote) enquiry of evaluation notes on the programs of interest. For example, the viewers of a television program may be requested by telephone to evaluate a current program, or they may themselves provide such an evaluation by telephone, e-mail, fax, SMS or the like. The evaluation notes thus obtained can be centrally collected and made available to a user within the scope of the method described. Another suitable and widely used method of program evaluation is to take the audience or viewer number for a current program into account. A high audience or viewer number indicates that the current program is most probably interesting to many users. It is exactly at this point where the proposed method is superior to the known methods which are only based on predetermined user preferences. For example, when in accordance with predetermined preferences, this user is not interested in sports or soccer, he may still be interested, by way of exception, in a particularly important soccer match such as the world championship final. By taking audience or viewer numbers into account, the relevant program can be entered into the program list without the user's intervention and against his actual preferences so that the user becomes aware of this program and does not miss it. [0011] In addition to the criteria depending on the program evaluation by other users, further predetermined criteria can be taken into account for managing the list of preferred programs. Particularly, such further criteria may be based on information about: [0012] the program provider, with, for example, services offered by the same provider as the one of the currently selected program may be interesting; [0013] a description of the contents of the relevant program so that, for example, specific information or entertainment broadcasts can be entered into the list; [0014] a (static or dynamic) evaluation of the program of a program provider, which information is particularly valuable when a program provider provides a plurality of programs in parallel and may therefore be evaluated differently; [0015] explicitly predetermined user preferences, for example, by entering preferred actors, sports clubs, broadcast types, music directions, etc.; [0016] implicitly gained or observed user preferences; [0017] the position of a program in the list, which information is particularly significant for lists that are searched stepwise by way of what is called "zapping"; programs in the list that are far away from the currently selected program are to be preferably deleted; [0018] the period of time elapsed since the last selection of a program, a long period of time indicating little preference for the relevant program which is thus pre-destined for deletion from the list; [0019] the period of time the user stays with a given program, a long stay indicating a great preference for the program; [0020] the period of time elapsed since the entry of a program in the list, in which this period of time together with the previously mentioned period of time since the last selection of a program and/or the staying time is preferably evaluated in combination. Particularly, the ratio of the period of time that the program is already in the list and the staying time can be computed, in which case a large value of this ratio indicates little preference for the program. [0021] In accordance with a further embodiment of the method, the criteria used for managing the list are adaptively matched or weighted. Particularly, a criterion may be given a greater weight when a program entered into the list on the basis of this criterion is subsequently preferred by the user, i.e. when the selection and hence the used criterion is confirmed by the user's behavior. The weighting of different criteria may comprise the assignment of a weighted "zero" in the extreme case, which effectively corresponds to the deletion of the corresponding criterion. [0022] In accordance with a preferred further embodiment of the invention, the user navigates stepwise through the list by way of control inputs. Typically, the user has two keys at his disposal, with which he can move the current selection from the list one position upwards or downwards in the list. Such a stepwise searching of programs in a list is also referred to as "zapping". [0023] The invention also relates to a method of controlling the program selection at the receiver of at least one broadcast medium, in which a list of preferred programs is managed in accordance with predetermined criteria and in which control inputs enable a user to navigate stepwise through the list. [0024] As explained above, stepwise navigation means that the selection from the list is moved one position upwards or downwards. The method is characterized in that a new program is added to the list when, upon navigation through the list, their limits are exceeded. This method is preferably combined with the above-mentioned method in which the program evaluation by other users is taken into account. [0025] In the known method of managing a list of preferred programs, the stepwise navigation is performed cyclically, i.e. when the upper or lower end of the list has been reached and the user's entry indicates that he wants to search beyond this list, the selection will jump to the opposite (lower or upper) end of the list. In contrast to this, the list of a new program is added in the method according to the invention, in which automatically predetermined criteria are preferably evaluated. In this way, the user can quasi-arbitrarily extend his list without having to perform special actions or entries other than the usual browsing through the list. [0026] In the case of stepwise navigation through the list of preferred programs, programs fulfilling a temporally limited negative criterion are preferably positioned at a distance from the current selection position in the list, which distance corresponds to the remaining duration of the negative criterion. Such a negative criterion may be a block of commercials which has been inserted in the program and which the user would like to skip. In accordance with the proposed method, the corresponding program is then repositioned in the list, i.e. it is moved further away from the currently selected program (selection position) as the duration of the commercial block is longer. In this way, it is achieved that, when zapping through the program, the user will most probably not reach the program with the commercials until after the negative criterion has been eliminated, i.e. until after the block of commercials has ended. [0027] In accordance with a further embodiment of the method, information about a new program selected by a user from the list is supplied. Particularly, for example, short information about the basic broadcast interrupted by the block of commercials can be given during these commercials. [0028] The invention also relates to a receiver for at least one broadcast medium, comprising a processing unit for automatically managing a list of preferred programs in accordance with predetermined criteria. The receiver is characterized in that the processing unit has an input for information signals relating to the program evaluation by other users of the broadcast medium, and in that at least a part of the predetermined criteria is based on said information signals. With such a receiver, the above-mentioned methods can be performed and their advantages can be achieved. The receiver may be further implemented in such a way that it can also perform the methods described hereinbefore. [0029] The broadcast medium for the above-mentioned method or receiver may be particularly television or radio. These media are characterized by a very large number of parallel programs so that an intelligent support for managing and selecting the programs is particularly important to a user. The methods and the receiver may be particularly also used simultaneously in combination with different broadcast media so as to manage, for example, a common list of programs of the Internet radio and terrestrial radio. [0030] These and other aspects of the invention are apparent from and will be elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter. [0031] In the drawings: [0032] FIG. 1 shows the components of a receiver according to the invention; [0033] FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the steps of the method performed when zapping through a list of preferred programs. Continue reading... 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